Why Physicians Don’t Like Big Data

Dr. Venkat Warren worries in a recent Wall Street Journal article that “some bean-counter will decide what performance is,” and fears that the application of big data analytics and the pressure to meet a long list of performance metrics might force clinicians to avoid caring for older and sicker patients who could drag down their performance numbers. “If it isn’t cost-cutting, what is it?” says Warren, a cardiologist in California’s MemorialCare Health System.
Warren is not alone in his concern. Dr. Thomas Santo, a physician who lives and works in New York City, has come to a similar conclusion: “… for any physician who sees their reimbursement cut by providing ‘sub-optimal care,’ as deemed by CMS [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services], what is to stop them from refusing to serve their sickest, most chronically ill and frequently hospitalized patients? In so doing, they raise the ‘quality’ of care they provide, and lower the cost at the same time …”